Systems, devices, and methods for analyzing and enhancing patient health

ABSTRACT

There are disclosed systems, devices, and methods for generating insights relating to patient health using a social networking platform interconnecting a patient with a plurality of care givers. The patient is provided access to a computer application configured to solicit and collect patient data from the patient, the computer application selected based on at least one characteristic of the patient. First patient data reflective of the health condition of the patient, as collected by the computer application, are received through the social networking platform. A communication from a care giver is transmitted to the patient through the social networking platform. Second patient data reflective of the health condition responsive to the transmitted communication are received through the social networking platform. The first and second patient data are analyzed to determine at least one insight relating to health of the patient; and a report is generated to present the insight.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation stemming from U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/614,940, filed Feb. 5, 2015, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/936,283, filed Feb. 5, 2014, all of whichare incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to patient health care, andmore particularly to systems, devices, and methods for analyzing andenhancing patient health using a social networking platforminterconnecting patients with care givers.

BACKGROUND

Patients often feel alone and isolated as they try to manage theirhealth condition, especially once they leave the care of their physicianor health care professional (HCP). Saddled with a long list of things todo (e.g. interventions, medications, health monitoring, lifestylechanges, diet modifications, symptom tracking, and so on), patients areoften overwhelmed and ill-equipped to perform self-care upon dischargefrom a hospital or leaving the physician's office.

Once a patient has come home, the at-home environment is completelydifferent from the hospital environment and lacks the critical caretools and most importantly the HCP who could monitor them on a regularbasis.

Access to integrated, direct and reliable communication between patientsand their support network (e.g. physicians, nurses, social workers,family members, psychologists, etc.) is no longer present once patientsleave hospitals.

In addition, the patient's illness itself, interventions required,expectations to complete activities they were never trained for and lackof immediate support are often the barriers to good health outcomes.

Further, patients are increasingly not given ample time by physicians toarticulate their day to day health issues. For example, average consulttime with physicians is 10 minutes which prevents patients fromdisclosing an extensive review or update about their state of health.This situation pushed the traditional view and practice that patientsare essentially recipients of health care and advice. In reality,patients can be an enormous source of health information from recordingtheir day to day activities in real world, real time which capturebroader and deeper health information beyond what clinicians captureinside the clinical, hospital or laboratory settings. Patient-drivendata can provide enormous supplementary knowledge and insights thatcould influence the course and timing of patient care.

Studies reveal that storytelling or the ability of patients to sharetheir health experiences to others is comforting and healing.Traditionally, patients use paper and pencil to record importantinformation or track certain health metrics that only patients knowbecause they experience it daily, beyond the usual bioinformatics thatare tracked by healthcare professionals. Some patients find it helpfulto monitor their mood, their diet, exercise or other activities relevantto their specific conditions but current modalities are either stilldependent on paper or are not integrated, making it a challenge forpatients or even their care providers to get a holistic picture of thepatient experience outside the clinical setting. A more holisticunderstanding of the full, real world, real time patient journey andexperiences could potentially improve the course and timing of patientcare. Furthermore, today's pharmaceutical marketers are faced with a newcompetitive landscape characterized by an increasing shift ofdecision-making power on brand choice from the traditional promotionaltargets (the physicians and pharmacists) to the actual consumers—theempowered patients.

Patients' knowledge, experiences, psychosocial dispositions andself-care cultures have been progressively brought into theirconversations with physicians and have had the power to reaffirm,revise, or completely alter the physicians' brand choices.

Marketing efforts designed around influencing physician behaviors havegiven diminishing returns in recent years, as differentiated campaignshave been harder to mount, and physician choices have encounteredincreasing pressure from both payors and patients.

Understanding the mindsets, behaviors and decision-making framework ofpatients is becoming indispensable for marketers to determine thecritical factors influencing patient's opinions that they bring intoconversations with their physicians and pharmacists. As patients becomemore medically-informed and assertive about their care, patient insightsand sentiments increasingly shape the final prescription and thereafterthe final brand choice at point of purchase.

Traditional data available to marketers focuses on actual and projectedpoint-of-prescription and point-of-sale metrics such as physicianprescription habits and pharmacy dispensing data. Commercial leadershave for years relied mostly on permutations of these audits to trackmarketing and sales effectiveness, making do with the limited parametersand supplementing understanding with more in-depth primary researchamong doctors and pharmacists.

In between doctors' prescription and purchases at the pharmacies,however, is the critical area of patient decision-making, which canexplain gaps in prescription fulfillment as well as motivations to stop,continue, or modify adherence to the prescribed drug regimen.

For pharmaceutical marketers, it is of significant value to measure thelevers that influence patient behavior towards treatment adoption,adherence and advocacy. Programs targeting patient-centric metrics mayhelp with driving brand recognition, acceptance and loyalty, which isnow only marginally increased with physician-centered campaigns.

Therefore, improved solutions are desired to address one or more of theabove-mentioned problems.

SUMMARY

In accordance with an aspect, there is provided a computer-implementedmethod for generating insights relating to patient health using a socialnetworking platform interconnecting a patient with a plurality of caregivers. The method includes: receiving at least one characteristic ofthe patient, the at least one characteristic comprising a healthcondition of the patient; providing at least one computer applicationfor access by the patient by way of the social networking platform, theat least one computer application configured to solicit and collectpatient data from the patient, the at least one computer applicationselected from amongst a library of computer applications based on the atleast one characteristic of the patient; receiving, by way of at thesocial networking platform, first patient data reflective of the healthcondition of the patient, as collected by the at least one computerapplication; transmitting, by way of at the social networking platform,a communication from at least one of the care givers to the patient;receiving, by way of the social networking platform, second patient datareflective of the health condition of the patient, the second patientdata responsive to the transmitted communication; analyzing, using atleast one processor, the first and second patient data to determine atleast one insight relating to health of the patient; and generating,using the at least one processor, a report for presenting the at leastone insight.

In accordance with another aspect, there is provided a system forgenerating insights relating to patient health. The system includes asocial networking platform interconnecting a patient with a plurality ofcare givers; a library of computer applications, each configured tosolicit and collect patient data from the patient; and at least oneprocessor configured: receive at least one characteristic of thepatient, the at least one characteristic comprising a health conditionof the patient; providing at least one computer application for accessby the patient by way of the social networking platform, the at leastone computer application selected from the library of computerapplications based on the at least one characteristic of the patient;receive, by way of at the social networking platform, first patient datareflective of the health condition of the patient, as collected by theat least one computer application; transmit, by way of at the socialnetworking platform, a communication from at least one of the caregivers to the patient; receive, by way of the social networkingplatform, second patient data reflective of the health condition of thepatient, the second patient data responsive to the transmittedcommunication; analyze the first and second patient data to determine atleast one insight relating to health of the patient; and generate areport for presenting the at least one insight.

In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of theinvention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited in its application to the details of construction and to thearrangements of the components set forth in the following description orthe examples provided therein, or illustrated in the drawings. Theinvention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced andcarried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that thephraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way ofexample. It is to be expressly understood that the description anddrawings are only for the purpose of illustration and as an aid tounderstanding, and are not intended as a definition of the limits of theinvention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for analyzing and enhancing patient health,in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system for analyzing and enhancing patient health,in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a high-level schematic diagram of a system of FIG. 1 or FIG.2, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a plurality of factors relevant in patient self-care,in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows exemplary features of system for analyzing and enhancingpatient health, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 6a and 6b illustrate relationships between a patient, a Circle ofSupport, and Health Quests, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates several example Health Quests, in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates example user interfaces of a system for analyzing andenhancing patient health, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 9a-9c , 10-18, 19 a, 19 b, 20 a and 20 b illustrate example userinterfaces of a system for analyzing and enhancing patient health, inaccordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary configuration of the system of FIG. 3,in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 22 illustrates another exemplary configuration of the system ofFIG. 3, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 23a-23f illustrate sample patient reports generated by the systemof FIG. 3, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 24a-24d illustrate sample aggregated reports by the system of FIG.3, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 25 illustrates channels for collecting patient data, in accordancewith an embodiment.

FIG. 26 illustrates an example user interface for enrolling a patient,in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 27 illustrates an example user interface for providing access to aplurality of widgets, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 28-33 illustrate example user interfaces of the widges of FIG. 27,in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 34 illustrates an example user interface for presenting collectedpatient data, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 35 and 36 illustrate example user interfaces for presentingpatient data to a case manager, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 37 is an example heat-map corresponding to behaviour signatures forpatients, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 38 is a block diagram of a computer system that may be adapted tofunction as the system of FIG. 3, in accordance with an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The embodiments of the systems and methods described herein may beimplemented in hardware or software, or a combination of both. Theseembodiments may be implemented in computer programs executing onprogrammable computers, each computer including at least one processor,a data storage system (including volatile memory or non-volatile memoryor other data storage elements or a combination thereof), and at leastone communication interface. For example, and without limitation, thevarious programmable computers may be a server, network appliance,set-top box, embedded device, computer expansion module, personalcomputer, laptop, personal data assistant, cellular telephone,smartphone device, UMPC tablets and wireless hypermedia device or anyother computing device capable of being configured to carry out themethods described herein.

Program code is applied to input data to perform the functions describedherein and to generate output information. The output information isapplied to one or more output devices, in known fashion. In someembodiments, the communication interface may be a network communicationinterface. In embodiments in which elements of the invention arecombined, the communication interface may be a software communicationinterface, such as those for inter-process communication. In still otherembodiments, there may be a combination of communication interfacesimplemented as hardware, software, and combination thereof.

Each program may be implemented in a high level procedural or objectoriented programming or scripting language, or a combination thereof, tocommunicate with a computer system. However, alternatively the programsmay be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. Thelanguage may be a compiled or interpreted language. Each such computerprogram may be stored on a storage media or a device (e.g., ROM,magnetic disk, optical disc), readable by a general or special purposeprogrammable computer, for configuring and operating the computer whenthe storage media or device is read by the computer to perform theprocedures described herein. Embodiments of the system may also beconsidered to be implemented as a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium, configured with a computer program, where the storagemedium so configured causes a computer to operate in a specific andpredefined manner to perform the functions described herein.

Furthermore, the systems and methods of the described embodiments arecapable of being distributed in a computer program product including aphysical, non-tranisitory computer readable medium that bears computerusable instructions for one or more processors. The medium may beprovided in various forms, including one or more diskettes, compactdisks, tapes, chips, magnetic and electronic storage media, volatilememory, non-volatile memory and the like. Non-transitorycomputer-readable media may include all computer-readable media, withthe exception being a transitory, propagating signal. The termnon-transitory is not intended to exclude computer readable media suchas primary memory, volatile memory, RAM and so on, where the data storedthereon may only be temporarily stored. The computer useableinstructions may also be in various forms, including compiled andnon-compiled code.

Throughout the following discussion, numerous references will be maderegarding servers, services, interfaces, portals, platforms, or othersystems formed from computing devices. It should be appreciated that theuse of such terms is deemed to represent one or more computing deviceshaving at least one processor configured to execute softwareinstructions stored on a computer readable tangible, non-transitorymedium. For example, a server can include one or more computersoperating as a web server, database server, or other type of computerserver in a manner to fulfill described roles, responsibilities, orfunctions. One should further appreciate the disclosed computer-basedalgorithms, processes, methods, or other types of instruction sets canbe embodied as a computer program product comprising a non-transitory,tangible computer readable media storing the instructions that cause aprocessor to execute the disclosed steps. One should appreciate that thesystems and methods described herein may transform electronic signals ofvarious data objects into three dimensional representations for displayon a tangible screen configured for three dimensional displays. Oneshould appreciate that the systems and methods described herein involveinterconnected networks of hardware devices configured to receive datausing receivers, transmit data using transmitters, and transformelectronic data signals for various three dimensional enhancements usingparticularly configured processors, where the three dimensionalenhancements are for subsequent display on three dimensional adapteddisplay screens.

The following discussion provides many example embodiments of theinventive subject matter. Although each embodiment represents a singlecombination of inventive elements, the inventive subject matter isconsidered to include all possible combinations of the disclosedelements. Thus if one embodiment comprises elements A, B, and C, and asecond embodiment comprises elements B and D, then the inventive subjectmatter is also considered to include other remaining combinations of A,B, C, or D, even if not explicitly disclosed.

As used herein, and unless the context dictates otherwise, the term“coupled to” is intended to include both direct coupling (in which twoelements that are coupled to each other contact each other) and indirectcoupling (in which at least one additional element is located betweenthe two elements). Therefore, the terms “coupled to” and “coupled with”are used synonymously.

As used herein, a patient may be any person having at least one healthcondition. For example, a patient may be an individual in need ofrecovering from an illness or a medical procedure. The condition may bean acute or short-term condition. The condition may also be a chronic orlong-term condition. For example, a patient may be an individual who hasbeen diagnosed with Type II diabetes and discharged from a hospital.Such an individual often needs to rely on community nurses, socialworkers or family members to continue meeting the demands ofpost-consult and post-hospitalization care requirements.

Once discharged from a hospital or from a physician's office, patientsoften rely on community nurses, social workers or family members to meetpost-consult and post-hospitalization care requirements. However, accessto integrated, direct, and reliable communication between patients and anetwork of supporters and health care professionals (e.g. physicians,nurses, social workers, family members, psychologists, etc.) is nolonger present once patients leave hospitals. In the present disclosure,such supporters and healthcare professionals may collectively bereferred to as care givers.

Self-care management is often multi-dimensional. It can requireinformation, knowledge, planning, organization, prioritization,execution of interventions and activities that patients are nevertrained to do and often compete with patient's psychosocial andemotional interests. A variety of factors may prevent a patient fromproperly managing his or her self-care, such as lifestyle habits,financial state, education, geographical location, sleeping habits,gender, age, sleeping habits, family and friends, level of cognitivefunctions, technology literacy, medication use, diet, emotions andfears, knowledge, and so on (e.g. as shown in FIG. 4).

Specifically, patients often struggle in the following aspects ofdisease management:

-   -   Medication adherence (compliance) and reconciliation—patients        may not take medications as directed, in terms of timing of        administration, dosage, frequency, wrong drug combination and        medication errors.    -   Medication persistence—patients may not take drugs for the        prescribed duration (e.g. 5 days instead of 1 full week, 3        months instead of 6 months, etc.), often leading to        discontinuation of medication before the end of the prescribed        period.    -   Diet and nutrition interventions—changing patient's diet is        often difficult because it involves breaking long-term habits,        including planning, purchasing, preparing, cooking and eating.        Doing these activities is a challenge especially when there is        no support system at home.    -   Monitoring—health monitoring requires full awareness of symptoms        to watch out for and to record or document changes.        Traditionally, patients recognize symptoms when they are out of        the norm or when they are impacting patient's daily lives. Upon        hospital discharge, patients are expected to monitor symptoms        and report those that may indicate risks or danger.    -   Psychosocial/emotional—patients undergo several levels of        emotions during their journey, from diagnosis, to treatment        management and all the way to post treatment. Patients        experience a wide range of emotional and psychosocial challenges        (e.g. denial, depression, anxiety, feelings of isolation,        frustration, disappointment, regret, fear, loss of self-esteem,        etc.). Patients may need a platform to journal, share and seek        help during such difficult periods.    -   Support—research also reveals that patients who know that they        are being followed and monitored perform well in self-care        management, specifically in documenting symptoms, sharing their        feelings and emotions and executing certain tasks against health        goals that were pre-established for them.    -   Complexity—relief from the complexity of illness management        often requires an environment that will enable patients to ask        questions, share information, record feelings, seek help and        support from a wide range of people, even geographically distant        ones.    -   Patient engagement and ability to sustain disease        interventions—it is not easy to sustain all activities expected        from patients on a daily or regular basis. Along the way, they        experience fatigue, lack of interest, feeling that they no        longer need medication because they feel better, face        competition with their other life priorities which some deem as        far more important and urgent. A platform or means to ignite        interest, excitement, motivation to sustain self-care and        disease management is crucial to achieving better health        outcomes.    -   Conflict—Patients experience decision conflicts because choosing        and prioritizing health interventions (e.g. taking medication,        amidst their other life activities). Maintaining existing        professional and social connections requires high-level decision        making.

In an aspect, there is provided a system configured to collect andanalyze patient data, e.g., reflective of a patient's health condition.As will be detailed herein, the system may use a variety of channels andmechanisms to solicit and collect patient data. For example, the systemmay include a social networking platform configured to connect patientswith a network of supporters and care givers. The system may utilizethis social networking platform to establish a variety of channels andmechanisms to solicit and collect patient data. The system may analyzethe collected data to generate insights relating to patient health. Suchinsights may include, for example, insights regarding patient behaviour(e.g., adherence to drug regimens, moods, selection of particular brandsof pharmaceuticals, etc.). The insights may be used to influence apatient's behaviour (e.g., to promote adherence to a drug regime, tolift mood, etc.), which may in turn promote self-care. The insights maybe provided to third-parties for use, e.g., in association with marketresearch or clinical research.

The system may utilize the social networking platform to engage thepatient's network of supporters and care givers (e.g. physicians,nurses, social workers, family members, psychologists, etc.),hereinafter referred to as a “Circle of Support” or a “Circle of Care”,and facilitate and encourage the involvement of the Circle of Support inthe patient's self-care through activities, interventions, andinteractions.

A patient's Circle of Support may include a close, trusted group ofpeople that communicate with and support the patient, e.g., during arecovery process. The Circle of Support may consist of a patient'sclosest supporters and allies. Members of Circle of Support may also bereferred to as Health Allies.

In other aspects, there are disclosed systems, devices, and methods thatprovide a self-care and journaling solution and platform that mayinform, comfort, and support a patient who is recovering from an illnessor chronic condition, and may be suffering, isolated, or anxious, etc.Such a solution and platform may help the patient perform self-care(e.g., during a recovery process) in various manners. For example, helpmay be automatically provided by the solution and platform by obtainingsupport from members of a patient's Circle of Support, helping patientsto achieve health goals, driving informed decision-making, givingrecognition and rewards to motivate the patient, and so on, as depictedfor example in FIG. 5.

As will be described below, the system includes a special purpose socialnetwork configured to enable communication between patients and selectedindividuals who are likely to be able to help those patients meet healthobjectives, e.g., their Circle of Support. The health objectives mayrelate to rehabilitation, disease management, disease prevention, and soon. An application and a platform are provided to implement andconfigure such social networks, and to facilitate communications amongstpatients and Circle of Support members around health objectives, in away that produces results relative to the health objectives.

Referring now to FIG. 1, an example system in accordance with anembodiment is shown. Network 10 may be one or more networks in anysuitable form, including as a local area network or a wide area network,such as an enterprise network or the Internet. Such networks may bebased on any suitable technology and may operate according to anysuitable protocol and may include wireless networks, wired networks orfiber optic networks. For example, network 10 may be any network capableof carrying data including the Internet, Ethernet, plain old telephoneservice (POTS) line, public switch telephone network (PSTN), integratedservices digital network (ISDN), digital subscriber line (DSL), coaxialcable, fiber optics, satellite, mobile, wireless (e.g. Wi-Fi, WiMAX),SS7 signaling network, fixed line, local area network, wide areanetwork, and others, including any combination of these.

Computing device 12 provides one or more patients 18 with access to apatient self-care solution application 100 executing at device 12, and aplatform 14 by way of network 10. In an embodiment, computing device 12may be a mobile device (e.g. an iPhone™ or Android™ device). In anembodiment, computing device 12 may be another type of networkedcomputing device, such as a personal computer, workstation, server,portable computer, mobile device, personal digital assistant, laptop,tablet, WAP phone, an interactive television, video display terminals,gaming consoles, electronic reading device, and portable electronicdevices or a combination of these.

For simplicity only one device 12 is shown, but the system may includeone or more devices 12 operable by patients 18 or other uses to accessremote network resources (e.g., at platform 14).

It is to be appreciated that even though mobile devices such as a phoneor a tablet may be illustrated in the drawings and referred to in thedescription, they may also be substituted with any type of computingdevice capable of providing the functionalities described herein. Forexample, a mobile phone may also be a tablet device or a desktop device,and vice versa.

Application 100 may be particularly configured with hardware andsoftware to interact with platform 14 via network 10 to implement thefunctionalities described herein. Application 100 may be implementedusing one or more processors and one or more data storage devicesconfigured with database(s) or file system(s), or using multiple devicesor groups of storage devices distributed over a wide geographic area andconnected via a network (which may be referred to as “cloud services”).

As will be described below, application 100 is configured tointeroperate with platform 14 to motivate patients 18 to engage inself-care through connections with members of their Circle of Supportand/or other patients 18. For example, application 100 and platform 14may be configured to allow Circle of Support members to assign andmotivate patients 18 to complete customized and interactive HealthQuests 26 (customized health-related tasks, as described below).Application 100 and platform 14 may be configured to allow communicationamongst patients 18 and members of their Circle of Support, which may beautomatically directed to focus on health-related topics or issues. Suchissues may be automatically selected based on insights generated for aparticular patient 18. Recognition, games, and rewards may also beprovided in order to encourage the patients 18 to complete Health Quests26.

Each of devices 12 and platform 14 may include any type of processor,such as, for example, any type of general-purpose microprocessor ormicrocontroller, a digital signal processing (DSP) processor, anintegrated circuit, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), areconfigurable processor, a programmable read-only memory (PROM), or anycombination thereof. Platform 14 may include any type of computer memorythat is located either internally or externally such as, for example,random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), compact discread-only memory (CDROM), electro-optical memory, magneto-opticalmemory, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), andelectrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM),Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) or the like.

Each of platform 14 and application 100 may include one or more inputdevices, such as a keyboard, mouse, camera, touch screen, sensors, and amicrophone, and may also include one or more output devices such as adisplay screen (with three dimensional capabilities) and a speaker.Platform 14 has a network interface in order to communicate with othercomponents, to access and connect to network resources, to serve anapplication and other applications, and perform other computingapplications by connecting to a network (e.g., network 10 or multiplenetworks).

Each of devices 16 a, 16 b, 16 c, and 16 d (which may be referred toindividually as a device 16 or collectively as devices 16) provides oneor more members of a patient's Circle of Support (e.g., a physician 22)with access to application 100 (executing at a device 16), and platform14 by way of network 10. Each device 16 may be substantially similar todevice 12.

Each device 16 may optionally communicate with one or more externaldevices 17 a, 17 b, and 17 c (which may be referred to individually asan external device 17 or collectively as external devices 17). Externaldevices 17 may include, for example, various devices having sensors fordetecting patient data, such as smart watches, sleep and fitnesstrackers, weight scales, blood pressure cuffs, pulse oximeters, etc.Such devices may be worn, carried, or used by the patient 18. Suchdevices may be used in patients' homes. External devices 17 may alsoinclude, for example, various medical devices or instrumentation used byhealthcare professionals, e.g., in a medical setting such as a hospitalor other care facility. External devices 17 may also include data entrydevices (e.g., computers, smart phones, tablets, etc.) used byhealthcare professionals for entering patient data, e.g., for loggingdata collected in a checkup. External devices 17 may also include, forexample, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags attached to objectswith which a patient may interact (e.g., pill bottles, fitnessequipment, etc.). Patient interactions with such objects may be detectedby way of such tags, and these interactions may be received and recordedas patient data, as detailed below.

Each device 16 may receive patient data from one or more externaldevices 17. Patient data may be received by way of various communicationinterfaces such as WFi, Bluetooth, infra-red, Near-field communication(NFC), or the like. Such patient data may be provided to application100, and may be relayed to platform 14.

One or both of application 100 and platform 14 may be configured toregister and authenticate users (using a login, unique identifier, andpassword for example) prior to providing access to applications, a localnetwork, network resources, other networks and network security devices.Platform 14 may concurrently serve multiple users.

As detailed below, platform 14 includes an analytics utility configuredto analyze patient data (e.g. data collected through application 100) togenerate insights. Such insights may be generated using healthbehavior-driven analytics. Such insights may be used to inform, predictand influence healthcare decisions. Some insights may also be used formarket research, or clinical research purposes.

Application 100 and platform 14 may be configured to interoperate inmanners disclosed herein, e.g., to collect patient data, encouragepatients 18 to achieve their health goals, and to influence patientbehaviour.

In an example, application 100 and platform 14 may be configured tocollect patient data via one or more computer applications (or widgets).As will be detailed below, these computer applications may presentvarious tasks to patients 18 (e.g., to log their activities, moods,etc., and/or to perform particular activities). These tasks may bereferred to herein as Health Quests 26. In an embodiment, the widgetsmay present one or more tasks in the form of a game for a patient 18 toplay. In an embodiment, the widgets may offer and provide rewards (e.g.,points) for completion of certain tasks, to thereby incentivize apatient 18 to complete those tasks.

In another example, application 100 and platform 14 may be configured tocollect patient data from communications between patients 18 and membersof their Circle of Support. In an embodiment, platform 14 may beconfigured to encourage communication between patients and members oftheir Circle of Support, e.g., by suggesting particular messages fortransmission. The particular messages may be tailored according toinsights generated for a particular patient, e.g., to reflect a reportedor inferred condition or event. In an embodiment, platform 14 may beconfigured to assist communication between patients 18 and members oftheir Circle of Support, e.g., by providing automatic translationbetween technical language (including medical terms) and plain language.

Platform 14 may analyze collected data and generate insights relating topatient health. Platform 14 may generate documents (e.g., reports,agendas, memorandums, SOAP notes) including collected data and/or one ormore generated insights. Such documents may also be used to automateand/or simplify data collection/entry for health care professionals(e.g., physicians or nurses). Such documents may also present actionablehealth intelligence data for patients 18, members of their Circle ofSupport, or third-parties such as, for example, clinical researchers andmarketers.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may be configured to maintain a library ofcomputer applications (which may also be referred to as widgets). Awidget within this library may be configured to encourage or instruct apatient 18 to perform certain tasks. Tasks may include, for example,logging patient activity (e.g., taking medication), logging moods,logging patient metrics (e.g., weight, blood pressure, etc.). So, awidget may be configured to solicit and collect this patient data. Tasksmay also include, for example, communicating with members of patient'sCircle of Support, or performing certain activities (e.g., takingmedication). Tasks may include a set of actions (e.g. 26 a, 26 b, 26 cof FIG. 7), to be performed over time by a patient 18, with the aim ofachieving specific health or wellness outcomes. Tasks presented by wayof such a widget may be referred to herein as a Health Quest 26.

FIG. 27 depicts an example interface presented to a patient 18 showing aselection of widgets for the patient 18 to use. As shown, the widgetsinclude a medication tracker widget, a symptom tracker widget, a moodtracker widget, an appointment calendar widget, a journal widget, and aweight tracker widget.

As shown in FIG. 28, the medication tracker widget asks a patient 18 torecord their medications and a dosage schedule. A patient 18 may entermedications by searching within a database of medications stored atplatform 14. Conveniently, platform 14 may be configured to transmitreminders to patients 18 to take medications according to the enteredschedule. Patients 18 may confirm that they have taken the medication,which will be logged by platform 14.

As shown in FIG. 29, the symptom tracker widget asks a patient 18 torecord their symptoms, and optionally a degree to which the symptom ispresented (e.g., a degree of pain or discomfort). A patient 18 may entersymptoms by searching within a database of symptoms, stored at platform14.

As shown in FIG. 30, the daily mood tracker widget asks a patient 18 torecord their mood. The mood may be selected by the patient from apre-defined set of moods, as represented using icons or other types ofimages. The patient 18 may also select the desired level of visibilityfor the recorded mood. For example, it may be visible to all members ofthe Circle of Support, or optionally it be visible to selected membersor users.

As shown in FIG. 31, the appointment calendar widget asks a patient 18to record important dates and event related to the patient's well-being(e.g., appointments to visit a physician).

As shown in FIG. 32, the journal widget asks a patient 18 to enterhis/her thoughts and feelings in a guided journal. The patient may pickfrom a list of suggested topics, or enter text freely. In an embodiment,platform 14 may generate guided questions based on analyzing other datacollected for the patient. For example, platform 14 may guide journalentry to focus on the patient's adherence to a medical regimen if thepatient has not been taking medications according to schedule. As shownin FIG. 33, the weight tracker widget asks a patient to record theirweight periodically (e.g., daily).

As shown in FIG. 34, platform 14 may present an interface allowing apatient 18 (or members of his/her Circle of Support) to view patientdata collected by way of one or more widgets. The interface may beconfigured to show trends over time (e.g., changes in the severity of asymptom). Conveniently, this interface allows patients 18 to visualizehow platform 14 is helping them manage their condition. This feedbackmay function as positive reinforcement and help establish a therapeuticrelationship between a patient 18 and platform 14.

In an embodiment, at least some of the widgets within the librarymaintained at platform 14 may be categorized according to particularhealth conditions (e.g., Alzheimer's, an anxiety disorder, asthma,etc.). Such widgets may, for example, be configured to present tasksapplicable to a particular health condition. In one example, a widgetassociated with an eating disorder may be configured to solicitinformation from a patient 18 regarding food intake. In another example,a widgets associated with Alzheimer's may present tasks relating tomemory exercises. Widgets may also be categorized according to othercriteria, e.g., patient demographics, particular drugs, particularhealth organizations, particular geographic areas, etc.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may automatically identify one or morewidgets (or Health Quests 26) of interest to a particular patient 18,e.g., by matching the patient's health condition and the healthcondition associated with the widget, or by identifying applicationspopular amongst other patients 18 sharing one or more health conditions.Platform 14 may recommend identified widgets to a patient 18 for access,e.g., by way of notifications presented through application 100. Widgetsmay also be automatically matched and recommended to patients accordingother criteria (e.g., based on drugs that a patient is taking,organizations with which the patient is associated, research studies inwhich the patient is participating, etc.).

A widget may be executed at platform 14 and/or at device 12. A widgetmay be retrieved by a device 12 from platform 14 for execution at device12. In an embodiment, application 100 may maintain a personalizedlibrary of widgets for a particular patient 18 at device 12. Patients 18may add or remove widgets to/from this personalized library. Platform 14and/or application 100 may automatically add or remove widgets to/fromthis personalized library. For example, platform 14 and/or application100 may automatically add a widget predicted to be of interest to aparticular patient 18.

In an embodiment, platform 14 and/or application 100 may be configuredto allow a member of a patient's Circle of Support to recommend aparticular widget. In an embodiment, platform 14 and/or application 100may be configured to allow a member of a patient's Circle of Support toadd or remove a widget from a patient's personalized library.

For example, Circle of Support members can identify a widget for use bya patient 18 based on their knowledge of that patient 18. Circle ofSupport members can also configure a widget and particular tasks basedon their knowledge of that patient 18. For example, a Circle of Supportmember may know that a particular patient 18 is allergic to milk, andcan thus avoid milk in his or her suggestions of healthy diet as a task(i.e., a Health Quest 26).

In an embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, Health Quests 26 a-26 c(corresponding to one or more widgets) are presented to a patient 18 viaan intuitive 3×3 keypad-style grid through application 100 on a device12. Time-sensitive Health Quests 26 can trigger the generation of one ormore reminders and notifications through application 100.

A patient 18 can fulfil specific goals of the Health Quests 26 by, forexample, engaging in real-life actions, and/or recording his or heractions in application 100 through various types of data entry by thepatient 18, including text, photo, video, etc.

Health Quest 26 data that have been recorded by the patient 18 can befurther presented to Circle of Support members for feedback, which mayin turn be sent to patient 18 by way of application 100. For example,Circle of Support members can send feedback to the patient via text,image, or thumbs up/down.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may automatically monitor a patient'sperformance of particular Health Quests 26, and evaluate performance(e.g., based on degree of completion or timeliness of completion). Onthe basis of this evaluation, platform 14 may automatically notify oneor more Circle of Support members and recommend particular feedbackautomatically tailored to the evaluation. Platform 14 may automaticallyselect a particular Circle of Support member to receive such anotification and recommendation based on a role of the member comparedto the particular nature of the Health Quest 26. For example, platform14 may select a nutritionist from among Circle of Support members toprovide feedback if the Health Quest 26 relates to a food-intake task.

At any given time, a patient 18 can communicate with any member ofhis/her Circle of Support (e.g. to ask for support, information), asshown in FIG. 9a . In an embodiment, communication between a Circle ofSupport member and patient 18 may be transmitted via a messagingplatform built within application 100. In another embodiment, themessaging platform may be provided by an entity or utility outside ofapplication 100 but coupled to application 100 via a suitablecommunication channel (e.g., inter-process communication).

As shown in FIG. 6a , the Health Quests 26, Circle of Support members,and a patient 18 may interact in the manner of a feedback loop. In anembodiment, games, rewards, points, or quest sharing (e.g. via socialnetwork such as Facebook™) can be provided to encourage and sustainpatient health activities and interactions between patient 18 and aCircle of Support member. As illustrated in FIG. 6b , regular feedbackfrom Circle of Support members may promote sustained interest, so thatthe patient 18 can sustain motivation to keep completing Health Quests26 along their journey of recovery.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary system diagram in accordance withanother aspect. As shown, platform 14 may be implemented as a cloudservice, a cluster service or simply a cluster hosted in cloud, or arouter server configured based on certain configurations.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may be remotely or closely coupled withone or more application 100 on one or more devices 12 (or devices 16),and comprise entirely of software, or entirely of hardware, or includeboth software and hardware components. Platform 14 may be implemented toone or more server computers, or may be implemented using aninterconnected network of computer residing at the same or differentphysical locations, and connected to one or more application 100 and thecore network through one or more trusted network connections.Application 100 can interoperate with platform 14 and/or the othercomponents in the depicted network architectures to implement thefunctionalities described herein.

Application 100 and/or platform 14 may be configured to combine a set offeatures that work synergistically. For example, various Health Quest 26a, 26 b, and 26 c, related to the same health-related goal, activity orintervention may be presented to a patient 18. By supporting a varietyof quests types, application 100 and/or platform 14 may enable thepatient 18 to simultaneously manage diverse health and self-care needs.

As shown in FIG. 8, application 100 may be configured to include otherfeatures to augment and facilitate a patient 18′s completion of HealthQuests 26, and in turn to help the patient 18 stay on track withrecovery. For example, application 100 may be configured to providesimplified integration with external devices (e.g., external devices 17of FIG. 1) and relevant health applications (e.g., for diabetesnutrition, counting calories, medical queries, etc.).

As noted, external devices 17 may include one or more RFID tags attachedto objects with which a patient 18 may interact. Each RFID tag mayencode an identifier that uniquely identifies the object to which it isattached. In one example, an RFID tag may be attached to a pill bottleof patient 18. When a patient 18 takes a pill from that bottle, he/shemay present his/her device 16 to the RFID tag to receive the identifierencoded by the RFID tag. In this way, the patient 18 may notifyapplication 100 that the pill has been taken. Any existing reminders fortaking the pill configured at application 100 and/or platform 14 may becleared, and a new reminder may be set or activated for the next timethe patient is scheduled to take a pill from the bottle.

Conveniently, such features enable patients 18, as well as members oftheir Circle of Support to simplify and streamline the complexity ofhealth and self-care management. Some external devices may provide dataautomatically to one or more widgets. For example, a weight scale mayautomatically provide a patient's weight to the weight tracker widget.

Health Quests 26, associated events (e.g. patient 18 taking medicationon time, eating a healthy meal or measuring his or her weight), andrelated data may be recorded by application 100 and optionally storedelsewhere such as, e.g., at platform 14 or in a storage medium on cloudservices 20.

Optionally, events or actions detected by mobile device 12 but notactively entered into application 100 by patient 18 may also berecorded. For example, an iPhone™ GPS sensor may be able to detect thata patient 18 has walked 2 kilometers and such an event may be sent toapplication 100. For another example, application 100 may connect withan automated drug dispenser and receive information that a medicationhas been dispensed to patient 18. All these events and their associateddata, whether directly related to one or more Health Quests 26, may berecorded by application 100 and stored on cloud services 20 or in alocal memory of mobile device 12, for later processing and/or reporting.

In an embodiment, application 100 and/or platform 14 may be configuredto log information regarding communication and interactions amongstpatients and Circle of Support members, such as postings, email,texting, speech and so on. For example, application 100 and/or platform14 may be configured to allow Circle of Support members to recommendarticles or other relevant information through the application 100 toeach other and to the patient 18. In an embodiment, platform 14 mayautomatically identify information as being relevant to a particularpatient 18 (e.g., scientific articles), e.g., based on analyzing datacollected for that patient. For example, information may be identifiedas being relevant to the patient on the basis of particular drugs beingtaken by that patient, the patient's health condition(s), etc. Suchinformation, upon being identified, may be automatically presented topatients 18 or Circle of Support members.

Data from multiple sources or multiple patients can be aggregated byplatform 14 in a database connected locally or remotely, or using cloudservices 20.

Platform 14 and/or application 100 may be configured to allow patients18 to build their own Circle of Support by reaching out to their mosttrusted supporters which could include spouse, children, familyphysician, therapist, social worker, community nurse, friends and evenpeers with similar disease experience. In an embodiment, candidates fora Circle of Support may be automatically identified and suggested topatients 18. Patients can send personal invitations to their mosttrusted supporters, along with a link to the application 100 (e.g. via aCircle of Support interface on any one of devices 16 a, 16 b, 16 c, 16d).

One or more Health Quest 26 (see e.g. FIGS. 7 and 10) implemented in oneor more widgets may be tailored to the individual patient'scircumstances and configured either by the Circle of Support members orby patients themselves based on post-discharge or post-consultinstructions.

The system can support at least following Health Quest types (as may beimplemented by way of one or more widgets), which may overlap with oneanother, and are listed here for illustrative purposes and not meant tobe limiting:

-   -   Medication—Tracks adherence to prescribed medication, for        example recorded by text, photo and/or dosage sliders. In one        embodiment, creation of medication type of quests 26 a, 26 b may        automatically generate alerts and/or reminders for patient 18        (see e.g. FIG. 9c ).    -   Nutrition—Tracks food intake and diet goals, recorded by photo        and/or nutrition sliders. Qualitative and quantitative metrics        are extracted from submitted data.    -   Exercise or Fitness—Logs exercise and physical activity,        including integration with wearable fitness devices.    -   Symptoms—Record symptoms and severity over time, plotted as a        trend line.    -   Emotional and Spiritual—Psychosocial journal for tracking levels        of motivation, happiness, satisfaction, and recording pain        points.    -   Social—Connect and chat with Circle of Support.    -   Appointments—Schedule reminders for physician or healthcare        provider visits, including notes and goals for follow-ups.    -   Education—Provide relevant links for reference and learning,        including links to external websites or applications.    -   Lifestyle or Wellness—Provide resources on spirituality,        meditation, music, art, as well as complementary and alternative        medication/integrative health.    -   Vitals—Track vitals such as heartbeat, pulse, etc. via        appropriate health-monitoring devices such as pulse oximeter,        etc.    -   Monitoring—Track adherence to various goals such as weight,        nutrition intake, exercise amount, and so on.

The types of Health Quests 26 may be customized and modified by Circleof Support members, or alternatively by a system administrator ofplatform 14.

As noted, the library of widgets implementing Health Quests may includewidgets designed for specific diseases or conditions, and widgets may beautomatically selected for a patients based on one or morecharacteristics of that patient. Platform 14 and/or application 100 maybe configured to automate the selection and/or assignment of HealthQuests 26 based on one or more of the following factors: disease,condition, selection by Circle of Support members, consensus by Circleof Support members, opinion of patient 18, recommendations by healthcare professionals or pharmaceutical companies, and so on.

Platform 14 and Application 100 can recognize that not all members ofCircle of Support can sustain the same or consistent levels of activity,since some will be more active at certain times than others. The system(Platform 14 and Application 100) can be configured so that the othermembers can reach out with specific questions and so on, to make orreceive suggestions. The system can facilitate efficient communicationswithin the Circle of Support, in a way that can be specifically andexpressly authorized by the patient 18 and covered by the legalagreements/consents signed by the patient(s) 18. This way the system canremove barriers to the sharing of information and support from theCircle of Support, which in turn improves the health outcomes for thepatient 18.

In addition, application 100 may include mechanisms for members ofCircle of Support to reach a consensus regarding the Health Quests 26and associated incentives.

In an embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11, a Monitoring Quest 26 is beingcreated and assigned to Sally, the patient 18. As shown, the MonitoringQuest 26 can be created for at least three subjects: weight, bloodpressure and blood sugar. The creator of the Quest 26, in this casebeing a member of Circle of Support and Sally's doctor 16 d, 22, canselect weight as the monitored subject, and can further select a goalweight (e.g. 165 lbs.). The doctor 22 can also specify a current weight,or leave it to the patient 18 to fill out her current weight. The doctor22 can further enter an optional message to the patient 18 to encourageher, for example. Even though not explicitly illustrated in the drawing,the Monitoring Quest may also be created to monitor nutrition intake,exercising amount, and all other qualities that may be monitored.

In another embodiment, Health Quests 26 may also be recommended, createdand/or assigned by pharmaceutical companies who may provide a suitablemedication for the patient 18 for his or her condition(s). Suchrecommendation, creation of assignment of Health Quests 26 may be donein collaboration with other Circle of Support members.

Once created and assigned, the Health Quests 26 may be downloaded by thepatient 18 and other members of a Circle of Support. In addition, theymay also be shared and rated online by friends and peers of the patient18.

As shown in FIG. 12, one or more of the assigned Health Quests 26 can beassociated with a particular day or time, or location, and trackedaccordingly. One or more of the Health Quests 26 may also be generatedwith automatic reminders. For example, if the patient 18 has Type IIdiabetes and is using a drug M for controlling her condition, then anautomated scheduling and notifications in the forms of Health Quests 26may be generated for the patient 18 and displayed via the user interfaceof application 100. As an additional feature, application 100 may befurther configured to provide educational Health Quests 26 to patient 18regarding the benefits and possible side effects of drug M for his/hercondition.

As shown in FIG. 13, an appointment Health Quest 26 may be assigned andgenerated with a reminder in a to-do list in application 100. At anappropriate time (e.g. 24 hours before the appointment), application 100can deliver reminders along with the right information (e.g. suggestedquestions to ask a doctor, customized based on patient's condition) atthe appropriate time to patient 18. FIG. 14 illustrates examples ofsuggested questions presented to patient 18 before an appointment.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may be configured to permit Circle ofSupport members to play a role in selecting the incentives, games,rewards or other parameters (collectively “incentives”) that are likelyto produce the best result for the patient 18. Concurrently oralternatively, application 100 can recommend and select the appropriateincentives, games, rewards or other parameters based on factors such asdisease, patient profile, and so on.

Adherence to quests, including drug or medication adherences, can betracked by application 100 as shown in FIG. 15. This feature allowsapplication 100 to drive adherence through push notifications. Theadherence data can be tracked by application 100 and further processedby platform 14 to correlate the data with other metrics such as activitylevel, quest selection, doctor visits, and so on. Such data may be usedto generate patient reports by platform 14.

As shown in FIG. 16, application 100 can be further configured tosmoothly communicate with a variety of health devices such as weightscale, heartbeat monitoring wristband, blood pressure monitor, and soon. The readings from such devices may be communicated to application100 via a communication network 10 and recorded by application 100 as acompletion of a Health Quest 26.

As shown in FIG. 17, application 100 and/or platform 14 can beconfigured to distill the data collected by application 100 into simplereports, such as trending graphics, with action lines and automaticallyprompts to connect with Circle of Support member for medical advice orsupport when warranted, e.g., when a pre-defined event is detected(e.g., weight loss, increase in blood pressure, non-adherence to amedication regimen, etc.)

Application 100 may be configured to enable patients and their Circle ofSupport members to ask questions of each other, share information,feelings/emotions, secure feedback and journal about their daily tasks(e.g., Health Quests 26), both positive and negative (see FIG. 9a ). Themechanisms enabling this communication can be for example:

-   -   Ask—Patients 18 as well as Circle of Support members can ask        questions via chat (optionally using speech-to-text).    -   Share Information—Circle of Support members can post links, send        text, chat (optionally using speech-to-text).    -   Motivational messaging—Circle of Support members can record or        upload a media clip (e.g., a picture, audio clip, video clip,        etc.) when they enroll. The media clip is kept hidden from the        patient 18, but the patient 18 may gain access to the hidden        media clip by completing Health Quests 26. Access to the media        clip may be granted in parts such that the patient 18 gradually        gains incremental access by completing Health Quests 26. Once a        media clip is fully revealed, a notification may be sent to the        Circle of Support member to provide a new media clip.    -   Feedback—Patients 18 can tap on various buttons that will enable        them to express the following emotions.        -   Happy or Sad        -   Clear or Confused        -   Keep Going or Rest        -   Success or Failed (Struggle)        -   Better or Worse        -   Open feedback from both patients and Circle of Support    -   Journal—Free-form journal for patients to record feelings,        actions, accomplishments and/or struggles.    -   Gifts—Patients 18 as well as Circle of Support members may send        gifts to one other (e.g., to express thanks or support). Such        gifts may include virtual gifts (e.g., images of flowers, or        media clips such as a song or video), monetary gifts (e.g., to a        patient/Circle of Support member, or a donation to a charitable        organization or a partnering organization in the name of a        patient or Circle of Support member), or real gifts. Where the        gift is a real gift (e.g., a real world object or service), an        image of the gift may be presented through platform 14 to the        recipient), and the real gift may be delivered to an address        associated with the recipient by a partnering goods/services        provider. Platform 14 may send an electronic notification to the        recipient to notify them of the gift. In an embodiment, platform        14 may be configured to automatically transmit a gift to        recipient (e.g., a patient) on pre-defined occasions, e.g., on a        birthday, or on an enrolment anniversary.

As shown in FIG. 18, a secure messaging platform may be provided byapplication 100 through which a patient 18 can stay connected to Circleof Support members. A patient 18 may choose to share success stories orask questions to his or her supporters. A patient 18 may also receivefeedback and support from Circle of Support members and stay encouragedand motivated in turn.

For example, a patient 18 may record their lunch for the day and show itto one or more Circle of Support members. A patient 18 can also chooseto share conversations between one or more Circle of Support memberswith other members so that the support network is kept in loop withpatient's progress. Advantageously, when a patient 18 knows he or she isbeing monitored, he or she may tend to adhere to the recovery regimebetter.

In addition, all the data entries, including completed or missed HealthQuests 26 and conversations between Circle of Support members andpatient 18 can be automatically tracked and later analyzed, e.g., inorder to generate insights relating to patient health and/or producepatient reports such as patient journey report for a patient 18. Thereports may show progress of the patient in an intuitive andeasy-to-follow manner. The reports may be shared among Circle of Supportmembers so that they may follow patient's progress in real-timeefficiently.

In an embodiment, a workflow of application 100 (optionally, incombination with platform 14) may include support and encouragement forsuccessful completion of tasks (i.e., Health Quests 26). Patients 18 canbe awarded different amounts of points for achieving different levels ofcompletion. These points can be redeemed for tangible health-relatedrewards. In addition, points can be earned through a virtual slotmachine (e.g. as shown in FIGS. 9b, 19a and 19b ), which provides adimension of fun, thereby encouraging patients to sustain their interestand motivation to complete their assigned tasks. On top of thepoints-based reward system, Circle of Support members can giverecognition through plaques, which are featured on the patient'shistorical visualization trend.

In another embodiment, a patient 18 can be rewarded with points both forcompleting a Health Quest 26 and for positive feedback from the Circleof Support. Points can be gambled (and/or multiplied) on an in-appvirtual slot machine (see e.g. FIGS. 9b, 19a and 19b ), providing anaddictive element of fun. As an option, points may be further redeemedfor real-world health-related rewards.

For example, as shown in FIG. 20a , upon completion of a Health Quest, agame play icon is revealed. Once all game play icons are revealed, thepatient can play the slot machine game (see e.g. FIG. 20b ).

Such intrinsic rewards are often regarded as more powerful thanextrinsic rewards.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may be configured to monitor a patient'sengagement to assess and gauge usage patterns. Platform 14 may transmitan electronic notification to the patient if engagement falls belownormal usage patterns, or if the patient ceases to interact withplatform 14 or application 100 for a pre-defined period of time (e.g., 2days, a week, etc.). This threshold may be calibrated based on thepatient's typical usage patterns (e.g., usage frequency) as monitored.

A Health Quest 26, although tuned to the individual patient 18, may beuseful and meaningful to other patients under similar conditions orsharing other characteristics. Quest Sharing allows patients to postmessages regarding their Health Quests through platform 14. In anembodiment, platform 14 may automatically identify other patients 18having similar conditions or other characteristics, and direct theposted messages to such identified patients. Platform 14 may beconfigured to enable patients and other members to rank and comment ontheir experience in relation to particular widgets or particular HealthQuests 26.

Application 100 and platform 14 can provide a source of assurance, anearly warning safety net, and a source of insights for the patient, caregiver and care team into patient behavior and how it affects theiroutcomes.

In another embodiment, application 100 can also be configured to sendpatient 18 surveys or daily questionnaires regarding how he or she ismanaging the illness or condition. Questionnaires can be designed basedon principles of health psychology and other factors.

As an incentive to participate in the surveys or questionnaires,patients may be rewarded with points or compensation upon completion ofa survey or questionnaire.

Application 100 can be further configured to send patients' responsesand results to platform 14, which can in turn analyze aggregated patientresponses and prepare actionable client output or patient reports (seee.g. FIGS. 23 and 24).

Exemplary Workflows

Exemplary workflows of application 100, in accordance with one or moreembodiments, are presented below:

-   -   1. Social Engagement, Encouragement, Accountability and Feedback        -   a. Part 1. Quest creation:            -   i. Can be custom created by the patient, a Circle of                Support member, or chosen from a list of available                content            -   ii. Step 1: Goal setting.                -   1. E.g. for a “vital quest” for a patient where                    water retention is a worrisome sign, goal may be to                    maintain current weight.            -   iii. Step 2: Task setting. What specifically will be                done each day as part of the daily quest.                -   1. E.g. take photo of scale each day.            -   iv. Step 3: Publishing quest. Quest is sent to patient                and ally list and posted to the quest grid board (see                e.g. FIG. 7)        -   b. Part 2. Populating the quest grid:            -   i. Step 1. Weekly quest selection                -   1. At the beginning of the week patients selects up                    to 9 quests or quest bundles to populate the 3×3                    quest grid.                -    a. Quests can still be dynamic from day to day,                    though the category may be fixed for the week                -    b. E.g. a Circle of Support member quest can have a                    different set task generated each day for the                    patient, though the name/category on the grid may                    remain fixed        -   c. Part 3. Selecting and completing a quest            -   i. Step 1. Patients can choose a quest directly from the                quest grid            -   ii. Step 2. Patients follow the assigned steps and                submit.            -   iii. Step 3. Coins rewarded and points assigned to                badge/trophy/ranking                -   1. Amount of coins rewarded will increase as rank                    increases.            -   iv. Step 4. Quest is sent to assigned ally for scoring.            -   v. Step 5. Graphics on quest grid updated        -   d. Part 4. Circle of Support member in receipt of quest and            quest scoring.            -   i. Step 1. Circle of Support members log into their web                or mobile interface of application 100 and are presented                with a list of patients with active quests awaiting                scoring, active quests with worrisome values, or quests                that have been dormant 2 or more days. Circle of Support                members can see a patient's completed quest list as                either a task list or a reflection of the patient's                quest grid.            -   ii. Step 2. Circle of Support members score quest good,                great, or needs work with the option to add a brief                message.            -   iii. Step 3. Coins rewarded to ally and patient.        -   e. Part 5. Quest updated on patient's grid with new graphic,            additional coins reward to patient        -   f. Part 6. Selecting a completed quest from the quest grid            brings up the data visualization card            -   i. Displays trend lines or report for that quest.    -   2. Games        -   a. Coins can be used to play the built-in slots game    -   3. Gamification        -   a. Completion of health quests rewards points towards            badges, trophies, plaques, and rankings.        -   b. Higher rankings increase coins rewarded from quests    -   4. Real World Incentives        -   a. Coins can be redeemed for real world health related            rewards    -   5. Education        -   a. Quests can provide educational informational around            medications, disease, health, and well-being.    -   6. Tracking        -   a. Quests can interface directly with compatible devices or            access app or device repository data accessible through the            service API to automatically pull relevant data.        -   b. Passive activity data can be collected through a            combination of M7 motion sensors, gyroscope, ambient light            sensors, and other equipment specific sensors. FIG. 25            demonstrates how sample data may be collected via various            channels available to Application 100.        -   c. Positive and negative scoring of photo based quests        -   d. Emotional framing (positive, neutral, negative) of text            based quests and messages through natural language            processing.    -   7. EMR Interface        -   a. Blue button compliant electronic medical records can be            parsed and relevant data pulled into the application 100 or            platform 14 through a request button within the application            100.    -   8. Reminders        -   a. Tasks and medication adherence reminders can be sent            through push notifications or SMS text.    -   9. Data Visualization        -   a. Data condensed for easy interpretability with action            ques.    -   10. Behavioral analytics and signal detection        -   a. Data analyzed in real time for potential actionable            events such as a physical fall, or symptoms crossing a            threshold warranting follow-up with a medical professional        -   b. Risk management of patients by likelihood of hospital            readmission or adverse event        -   c. Analysis of behavior change opportunities that would lead            to higher likelihood of positive outcomes.

As shown in FIG. 3, in an embodiment of the invention, platform 14 mayinclude various modules including processor 310, I/O module 305, patientportal module 320, client portal module 330, partners portal module 340,analytics module 350, admin portal module 360, survey module 370, and astorage medium 380.

Platform 14 may be connected to application 100 on a mobile device 12.Platform 14 may also be connected to client portal interfaces hosted oncomputer device 24 (shown in FIG. 2) and to Circle of Support interfaceshosted on devices 16 a-16 d. The portals may be accessed on any computerdevice, including in HTML5 format and in a mobile-friendly way.

Platform 14 can present real-time, real-world, procedurally-generated adhoc patient and Circle of Support surveys that can feed into customizedresearch activities such as clinical studies, patient outcomes research,and intervention tests, as shown in FIG. 21. The Patient IntelligenceAnalytics component as shown in FIG. 21 may be implemented as part ofanalytics module 350, discussed below. The Patient IntelligenceAnalytics component may be configured to summarize patient's healthbehavior data into actionable health intelligence. An exemplary processof Patient Intelligence Analytics component can be: 1. recruit patients;2. manage patient workflow; 3. analyze aggregated patient responses; and4. prepare actionable client output.

The client output may then be synthesized into actionable informationthat marketers can utilize for marketing and sales planning. Patientportal 320 may facilitate the invitation and recruitment of patients 18for the purpose of answering surveys or daily questionnaires. Forexample, patient portal 320 may receive inputs from patients 18 andcreate a corresponding patient profile and store the patient profile indatabase 380.

FIG. 26 depicts an example interface presented to a patient as a part ofan enrolment process. As shown, this interface may prompt the patient toenter various characteristics, e.g., one or more health conditions. Thisinterface may also prompt the patient to other characteristicsincluding, e.g., age, gender, primary health concerns, comorbidities,etc. Such characteristics are stored by platform 14 as part of a patientprofile of the patient 18. Such characteristics may, for example, beused to match patients to particular widgets (Health Quests 26), toparticular Circle of Support members, to particular other patients, etc.

Patient portal 320 may also offer extra features such as journalkeeping, statistics based on patient history, statistics based ondisease history without protected or other personal data shown acrosspatients, and/or access to chat rooms.

Patient portal 320 may be configured to allow patient to manage his/herCircle of Support, e.g., by adding or removing users. Patient portal 320may provide an interface configured to allow a patient to search forindividuals to add to his/her Circle of Support, e.g., by using a name,e-mail address, or other suitable identifiers.

In an embodiment, patient portal 320 may automatically recommendindividuals for users to add to his/her Circle of Support, e.g., basedon generated patient insights. In one example, patient portal 320 mayrecommend individuals having similar symptoms or having the same medicalcondition. Patient portal 320 may suggest or filter recommendationsbased on demographic characteristics of patients (e.g., gender, age,etc.) or based on geographical proximity. In this way, patient portal320 assists patients in building a Circle of Support comprising a groupof patient peers who may assist in providing the care and support, orparticipate in an exchange of information relevant to the peer group.For example, peers may provide peer-to-peer mentoring, through sharingof learning objectives, sharing of learned behaviours (e.g., copingskills). Patients may also seek and receive advice relating tohealthcare decisions from others in the group of patient peers.

Conveniently, patient portal 320 may help a patient expands his/herCircle of Support to extend beyond individuals known to the patient.This may ameliorate effects of isolation, and to promote a feeling ofbelongingness.

Patient portal 320 may provide an interface configured to allow apatient to define a relationship type for each member of his/her Circleof Support, and to set access levels for his/her data/insights accordingto relationship types. In this way, a patient may control disseminationof information (e.g., collected data and/or generated insights) withinhis/her Circle of Support.

Client portal 330 is configured to provide clients (e.g., pharmaceuticalor clinical clients) access to a client dashboard for a variety offunctionalities including:

-   -   1. Access collected data;    -   2. Export collected data to client-readable format (i.e. CSV)    -   3. Access reports generated; and/or    -   4. Ability to access statistical analysis data

Partners portal module 340 is configured to provide dashboards forvarious users including Circle of Support members. For example, partnersportal module 340 may allow such users to view collected data (e.g.,entered by patients or by one or more widgets) and to view the analyticsresults (e.g., generated insights) provided by analytics module 350.

In an embodiment, partners portal module 340 may be configured toprovide users designated as case managers with access to data and/orgenerated insights. In this embodiment, partners portal module 340 maybe configured to present an interface allowing a case manager toadd/remove patients 18 for which they have responsibility. As shown inFIG. 35, partners portal module 340 may also present a case manager witha listing of their associated patients in conjunction with statusinformation. In this list, patients 18 may be ordered based on theurgency by which they require attention from a case manager. Thisurgency may be generated as an insight by analytics module 350 based oncollected data. As shown, the urgency may be color-coded in the list ofpatients (e.g., with red designating very urgent, and orange designatingsomewhat urgent). The list may also include a reason for why attentionfrom the case manager is needed, e.g., that the patient is not takingtheir medication, or that the patient has reported low moods over aperiod of time, that the patient has reported a symptom or side effect.

As shown in FIG. 36, a case manager may also access personalized reportsgenerated for a particular patient 18. This report may include variouspatient data collected from the patient (e.g., by way of the widgetsdepicted in FIG. 27). Case managers may also assign particular widgetsor Health Quests 26 to particular patients, or exchange messages withparticular patients by way of partners portal module 340.

Survey module 370 is configured to present surveys to patients 18 tocollect patient data. The surveys include a survey automaticallygenerated by analytics module 350. Survey module 370 may engage apatient 18 in one or more studies or surveys at a time (a study maycomprise one or more surveys). In an embodiment, patient can be givenset time period (e.g. 1-3 days) to complete each survey. Survey module370 may match surveys to patients based on one or more characteristicsof the patient or based on generated insights.

Platform 14 includes an analytics module 350 to generate insights intopatient behavior. Analytics may be applied to patient data collected fora particular patient 18. Analytics may also be applied to patient datacollected and aggregated for a population of patients 18.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may be configured to examinereal-time or near real-time data relating to patient's completionprocess of various Health Quests 26, and optionally communication databetween the patient and a Circle of Support member, or between two ormore Circle of Support members. For example, analytics module 350 may,through one or more data mining or machine learning techniques, canlearn that a patient 18 is concerned with his or her weight, and may inturn recommend a nutrition diet based on a number of factors such as thepatient's current weight and goal weight, the patient's typical mealplan, his or her health conditions.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may be configured to access oneor more databases containing both historical and real-time dataregarding other patients and their profiles. Analytics module 350 may befurther configured to take the data regarding other patients and toapply data mining or machine learning techniques, in order to determinea best practice solution for a patient 18 based on the historical and/orreal-time data related to other patients with similar conditions,weights, health objectives, and/or any other suitable factor. Such adetermination of a best practice solution can be further based onscientifically validated principles, available from a data repository ordetermined by the same analytics utility based on one or more patients'records.

Furthermore, data collected through application 100 (or one or morewidgets) can be time stamped, so that all the data, suggestions, bestpractice solution or recommendations may be analyzed and processed togenerate a patient journey for patient 18.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may be configured to normalizethe intelligent suggestions or recommendations in order to addressvariance of different patient journeys. For example during a recoverypath for a specific disease, each patient may progress through a certainnumber of stages, but for different patients the period of time for eachstage may vary. Many other types of variations are possible. Application100 and/or platform 14 can determine, via data mining and/or machinelearning techniques, for example the patient's current stage, andthereby can determine the appropriate information or suggestions (on anautomated basis) on an appropriate timing that is more likely to promotethe health objectives.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may apply learning algorithms tocollected data to model adherence and patient outcomes. The models canbe, in turn, used to understand new patient data being collected,triggering intervention when undesirable trends are detected andtriggering rewards for positive trends. The patient rewards systemautomatically adapts by modifying point values awarded for variousactions in real time or near real time, in order to provide theappropriate level of incentive.

For example, analytics module 350 may be configured to track, visualizeand analyze (e.g., using statistical models) factors contributing to:

-   -   i. Patient adherence    -   ii. Healthy eating    -   iii. Exercise behaviors    -   iv. Knowledge retention    -   v. Quality of communication    -   vi. Symptom control

Analytics module 350 may generate various insights relating to patienthealth such as, for example:

-   -   i. Disease category understanding    -   ii. Competitive insights    -   iii. Patient profiles and segment sizing    -   iv. Standard of care/messaging validation    -   v. Behaviour tracking    -   vi. Patient support needs    -   vii. Outcomes monitoring    -   viii. Medication adherence and compliance information    -   ix. Common questions that patients ask health care professionals

Analytics module 350 may be configured to generate documents includingpatient data for use by users, including patients, Circle of Supportmembers, healthcare professionals, researchers, clients, etc.

For example, analytics module 350 may generate reports for patients,showing a snapshot of on-going and completed quests (e.g. “patientjourney”). Trend lines and algorithmic assessments can help patientsunderstand their place in a patient journey. Reports can include forexample a history of rewards and recognitions (e.g. number of plaquescollected), and a journal summary (trend line of emotions based onfeedback). Such reports can motivate patients and Circle of Supportmembers (specifically healthcare providers) to pursue self-caremanagement for patient 18.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may be configured to generate atleast part of a Subjective Objective Assessment Plan (SOAP) note for aphysician (or another healthcare provider). For example, analyticsmodule 350 may identify relevant SOAP templates based on generatedpatient insights, and then populate those templates according tocollected data. The generated SOAP note (or portion thereof) may beprovided to a physician (e.g., by way of partners portal module 340) forreview and modification. In this way, manual data collection and entrysteps associated with preparation of SOAP notes may be avoided, and SOAPnotes may be prepared more efficiency. Further, human error associatedwith manual data collection and entry may be avoided.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may be configured to generate apersonalized agenda for a patient for use in an upcoming appointmentwith the patient's physician (or another healthcare provider). Theagenda may include patient data as collected by platform 14. Forexample, the agenda may include data regarding the patient's adherenceto a drug regimen, data relating to tracked health metrics such as bloodpressure or symptoms. In an embodiment, analytics module 350 maygenerate the agenda to include a visualization showing progress of ametric or symptom over time. For example, the visualization may showblood pressure tracked over a pre-defined period (e.g., one month) withtrend lines. In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may generate theagenda to include data relevant to a pre-defined purpose or scope of theappointment. In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may generate theagenda to include data relevant to the particular expertise of thehealthcare provider (e.g., in the case where the provider is aspecialist physician). For example, the agenda may be generated toinclude patient data relating to heart health if the appointment is witha cardiologist.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may generate the agenda usingmedical terms (jargon) or other technical language intended forconsumption by the healthcare professional. In this case, the agenda maybe annotated or otherwise supplemented with plain-language translationsthat may be more readily understood by a patient. To this end, analyticsmodule 350 may include a combination of dictionaries and look-up tablesestablishing mappings between technical language and plain language.Such dictionaries and look-up tables may be used to generate an agendacontaining technical language and plain-language translated supplements.

Conveniently, generation of a personalized agenda in manners describedabove may empower patients by facilitating preparation for anappointment with a physician or other healthcare provider. Clarity ofcommunication between patients and healthcare providers may be improved,which may have a beneficial impact on health outcomes for patients.

In an embodiment, the above noted dictionaries and look-up tables may beused in other aspects of components of platform 14. For example, thesedictionaries and tables may be used to translate between technicallanguage and plain language in communications between a patient and aCircle of Support member (e.g., a healthcare provider). In anembodiment, analytics module 350 may include a natural languageinterpreter configured to translate plain-language communication from apatient into technical language

In one example, translation may be provided in messages between apatient and a healthcare provider transmitted through platform 14. In anembodiment, such translation may be performed in a manner transparent toboth sender and recipient. In another example, translation may beapplied to instructions in technical language from a healthcareprovider.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may facilitate communication by patientsusing appropriate jargon or technical language in other ways. Forexample, platform 14 may implement an automated decision tree forselection of the appropriate language, e.g., by answering a sequence ofquestions regarding the patient's symptoms, desired treatment, desiredoutcome, or the like.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may include a speech-to-text engine toconvert an audio communication from a patient or other user (e.g., ahealthcare provider) for further processing to provide the above-notedtranslation.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may facilitate access to additionalinformation relevant to the communication. For example, platform 14 maymaintain identifiers of a plurality of journal articles (e.g., relatingto a particular prescription drug) and may automatically insert links tosuch articles in communications engaged in by the patient. For example,when the patient receives a communication from a healthcare providerrelating to a particular prescription drug, platform 14 may modify thecommunication to include a link to one or more articles regarding thatprescription drug.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may perform analytics to generateone or more of the following insights:

-   -   i. Real-time understanding of daily patient health behavior and        decision making    -   ii. Isolation of key influencers of patient behaviour    -   iii. Extraction of interrelationships between influencers    -   iv. An understanding of patients' decision making before and        after point of transaction, which is not captured by current        data analytics in the market    -   v. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analytics that        present both breadth and depth of data, customizable at the        marketer's fingertips    -   vi. Prediction of patient behaviors that remediate the biases        caused by existing retrospective research and perceptual        mapping.

Analytics module 350 can be further configured to:

-   -   i. Use patient psychological dispositions generated from        proprietary instrument to evaluate unique patient types to        predict their day to day health behavior and decision-making;    -   ii. Monitor and map out micro-level day-to-day changing trends        amongst individuals as well as different patient clusters;        and/or    -   iii. Synthesize macro-level decision making conflicts for        individuals as well as different patient clusters.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may analyze patient datacollected for a population of patients 18 to identify groups of patients18 with similar characteristics, similar health profiles (e.g., similardrugs being taken, similar health conditions, similar symptoms, etc.),or similar behavioural habits. Analytics module 350 may apply variousclustering or grouping techniques to arrange patients 18 into suchgroups. Groups may overlap such that each patient 18 is classified intomultiple groups. Different groups may be formed for different analyticalpurposes (e.g., patient quality of life analysis, medication adherenceanalysis, market access analysis, etc.). Once such groups have beencreated, analytics module 350 may generate insights into futurebehaviours or future responses to interventions based on data collectedfor the group. For example, analytics module 350 may predict behaviourfor a particular patient or predict a response to intervention for aparticular patient based on behaviours/responses logged for otherpatients in the same group.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may generate an electronicsignature (or fingerprint) based on data collected for a particularpatient 18. The signature is unique to the particular patient 18 andencodes data collected for that patient 18 (e.g., behavioural datacollected over time). FIG. 37 illustrates such fingerprints, inaccordance with an embodiment. As shown, the fingerprint data isarranged into an array of heatmap cells similar to a DNA microarray.Each column may correspond to one type of patient behaviour/task, e.g.,take morning pills, take noon pills, take afternoon pills, take Mondaypills, take Tuesday pills, nutrition data being entered, wearable devicedata being logged, etc. Each row may correspond to a patient. The colouror intensity of each cell may correspond to a degree of completion orcompliance for a particular behaviour/task for a particular patient 18.Once this fingerprint data has been generated, techniques applicable toDNA microarray analysis (e.g., probabilistic matrix factorization) maybe applied to segment patients into clusters 18, and thereby definegroups of patients 18.

In an embodiment, analytics module 350 may discover for example recoverytrends based on aggregated patient data, and provide these trends on anautomated basis to subscribers (e.g. patients, clients, health careprofessionals or partners) through one or more of the portals describedherein.

Platform 14 may also include a data storage, collation and processingunit that can store, pre-process, prepare and process collected data.Platform 14 may further comprise a data administration unit. The datastorage, collation and processing unit can be configured to persistentlystore the collected data.

The data storage, collation and processing unit may also conductpre-processing of the collected data to aid the performance of reportgeneration and execution. For example, where performance-intensiveanalytics are known to be run, the data storage, collation andprocessing unit could anticipate these runs, pre-fetch and pre-processthe collected data to reduce the number of calculations necessary atexecution.

The data storage, collation and processing unit, may in some embodimentsbe a data warehouse, a flat database or a relational database.

Examples of processing that may be done by the data storage, collationand processing unit include one or more of the following:

-   -   i. Receiving reference data from standards organizations or        manual input (e.g. the maximum pressure may be set out or        provided as an industry standard or a formulary guideline)    -   ii. Conducting queries of the collected data to run reports.        These queries may be executed using methods known to a skilled        user, such as SQL query language, SAS language, etc.    -   iii. Providing computational and analytics support for machine        learning, application of heuristics-based approaches for        independent variable identification in development of, for        example, neural networks.    -   iv. Pre-processing collected data to pre-fetch data to improve        execution performance.    -   v. Collating collected data from various sources and grouping        the data.    -   vi. Providing tagging of data with metadata (e.g. date received,        occurrence during an incident, related manufacturing stage,        operator present, plant information, manufactured using        instruction template 5 revision 6, manufacturing parameters        exceeded).    -   vii. Adding unique identifiers to collected data to improve data        integrity and performance for data record retrieval (e.g. the        addition of primary and foreign keys).    -   viii. Adding associations between data points either        automatically based upon a set of rules, or manually.    -   ix. Sort collected data according to date, identifiers,        metatags.

A possible configuration of platform 14 in accordance with anotherembodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 22.

The operation of platform 14 to generate insights, and to influencepatient behaviour may be further described with reference to particularexamples provided below.

In one example, platform 14 may be used to promote patient adherence(e.g., to drug regimens). Patient adherence is as low as 50% acrossdisease states, and non-adherence has been implicated in over 20% ofre-hospitalizations, costing healthcare organizations billions inun-reimbursed dollars. Thus, improving patient adherence may improvepatient health and reduce healthcare costs.

In this example, patient data may be collected using the medicationtracker widget (FIG. 28). The collected data may be analyzed todetermine one or more of: patients' medication usage habits (such astime of day), dose and frequency adherence, reasons for non-adherence,medication switch/add-on dynamics, barriers and drivers of medicationadoption, purchase behaviour (by brand), etc. Data may also be collectedusing the symptom tracker widget, and symptom data and medication datamay be correlated to generate insights regarding adverse events, drugefficacy, etc.

Platform 14 may improve adherence by providing reminders to trackmedication, reminders to refill prescription, countdown timers, etc.Platform 14 may also automatically notify one or more Circle of Supportmembers upon determining that a patient is not taking medication. Forexample, platform 14 may automatically generate a message to be sent bya Circle of Support member, to remind or encourage a patient 18 to takecertain medication.

Platform 14 may also automatically provide medical information topatients 18 and Circle of Support members to improve adherence byimproving medical knowledge overall, e.g., regarding particularmedications, side effects information, what to do, etc, disease-specificinformation to increase health literacy, patient illness perception, andself-efficacy. For example, platform 14 may provide this information inthe form of automatically generated messages sent to patients 18 andCircle of Support members, e.g., by way of application 100.

The collected data may also be used to measure and drive improvedpatient adherence for a specific brand, to understand other componentsof the patient experience that impacts adherence, so that supportprograms can be developed accordingly to drive behaviour change.

The collected data may also be used to more generally monitor patients'drug use. For example, the collected data may be used to measure andtrack patients' treatment decision-making dynamics around adoption,switch, and drop-off, add-on, off-label, alternative therapies, barriersand drivers.

In another example, platform 14 may be used to monitor patient outcomes.Outcomes analysis seeks to understand the end results of particularhealth care practices and interventions. End results include effectsthat people experience and care about, such as change in the ability tofunction. In particular, for individuals with chronic conditions—wherecure is not always possible—end results include quality of life as wellas mortality. By linking the care people receive to the outcomes theyexperience, outcomes analysis has become a key component of developingbetter ways to monitor and improve the quality of care.

In this example, patient data may be collected by way of the medicationtracker widget, the symptoms widget (e.g., to track side effects), thejournal widget (e.g., to track quality of life), and other widgetsconfigured to track/monitor other components of health such as mood,vitals, etc.

Examples of outcomes that may be determined by analyzing the patientdata include mortality, physiologic measures (e.g. blood pressure),clinical events (e.g. stroke), symptoms (e.g. breathing difficulty),functional measures (e.g. health survey), patients' experiences withcare (e.g. feedback on health care provider experience).

Such outcomes may be used to measure and drive improved patientoutcomes, to provide data for clinical trials, and/or to understandother components of the patient experience that impacts patientoutcomes, so that support programs can be developed accordingly.

In yet another example, platform 14 may be used to measure and/orpromote market access. Market access is the process to ensure that allappropriate patients who would benefit from a drug get rapid andmaintained access to the drug.

In this example, data may be collected by way of the journal widget(FIG. 32). This data may be analyzed to determine patients' quality oflife, behaviours, decision conflicts, and experiences, and overallhealth, illness impact on quality of life, which may include thefollowing aspects: active living, social functioning, types ofhealth-promoting behaviours, coping style, and to evaluate the patient'spsychological dispositions. Data may also be collected by way of themood tracker widget (FIG. 30), and this data may be analyzed todetermine a patient's daily ups and downs, psychosocial aspect ofillness, impact of illness on emotions, impact of emotions on medicationusage, quality of life, etc., sources of stressors and burden, and soon. Collectively, these insights may be used to measure the value of anew therapy against older/existing treatments and its impact on patientvalues (e.g. quality of life, psychosocial impact, etc.). Such insightsmay be used as evidence on the benefits of drug in review for marketaccess submission purposes.

In a further example, platform 14 may be used to measure and/or promotea patient's quality of life. In particular, utilization of the journalwidget and the other widgets described herein allow allows patients tochronicle their day-to-day experiences with their condition, includingwith directed questions that are designed to extract specificinformation. For example, data collected by way of the journalizingwidget may be used to determine patients' quality of life, behaviours,decision conflicts, and experiences, and overall health, illness impacton quality of life, which may include the following aspects: activeliving, social functioning, types of health-promoting behaviours, copingstyle, and to evaluate a patient's psychological dispositions. Datacollected by way of the mood tracker may be used to determine apatient's daily ups and downs, psychosocial aspect of illness, impact ofillness on emotions, impact of emotions on medication usage, quality oflife, etc., sources of stressors and burden, and so on. Collectively,these insights may be used to generate insight into patient's overallquality of life.

FIGS. 23a-23f illustrate sample patient reports generated by analyticsmodule 350 and may be displayed to patients 18 (or Circle of Supportmembers) via a patient portal or to clients 24 via a client portal.

FIGS. 24a-24d demonstrate sample Aggregated Reports generated byanalytics module 350 and may be displayed to clients 24 via a clientportal.

Patient data may be pre-processed to remove necessary or appropriateconfidential information prior to being processed into any report.

The reports may be available to various subscribers (e.g. patients,clients, health care professionals or partners) of platform 14.

In an embodiment, platform 14 may include a suitable combination ofmechanisms for protecting the privacy and/or security of collected dataand generated insights. For example, platform 14 may store data/insightsin storage medium in encrypted form, and/or use encrypted transmissionsfor communicating data/insights. In an embodiment, the mechanisms may betailored to meet privacy and/or security requirements in a particularhealth setting, or to meet privacy and/or security requirements set outby particular government regulations. For example, a specific form ordegree of encryption (e.g., 128 bit) may be used to meet theserequirements.

The functionality described herein may also be accessed as an Internetservice, for example by accessing the functions or features describedfrom any manner of computer device, by the computer device accessing aserver computer, a server farm or cloud service configured to implementsaid functions or features.

The above-described embodiments can be implemented in any of numerousways. For example, the embodiments may be implemented using hardware,software or a combination thereof. When implemented in software, thesoftware code can be executed on any suitable processor or collection ofprocessors, whether provided in a single computer or distributed amongmultiple computers. Such processors may be implemented as integratedcircuits, with one or more processors in an integrated circuitcomponent. A processor may be implemented using circuitry in anysuitable format.

Further, it should be appreciated that a computer may be embodied in anyof a number of forms, such as a rack-mounted computer, a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer. Additionally, acomputer may be embedded in a device not generally regarded as acomputer but with suitable processing capabilities, including an EGM, AWeb TV, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a tablet orany other suitable portable or fixed electronic device.

Also, a computer may have one or more input and output devices. Thesedevices can be used, among other things, to present a user interface.Examples of output devices that can be used to provide a user interfaceinclude printers or display screens for visual presentation of outputand speakers or other sound generating devices for audible presentationof output. Examples of input devices that can be used for a userinterface include keyboards and pointing devices, such as mice, touchpads, and digitizing tablets. As another example, a computer may receiveinput information through speech recognition or in other audibleformats.

Such computers may be interconnected by one or more networks in anysuitable form, including as a local area network or a wide area network,such as an enterprise network or the Internet. Such networks may bebased on any suitable technology and may operate according to anysuitable protocol and may include wireless networks, wired networks orfiber optic networks.

The various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded assoftware that is executable on one or more processors that employ anyone of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Additionally, suchsoftware may be written using any of a number of suitable programminglanguages and/or programming or scripting tools, and also may becompiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code thatis executed on a framework or virtual machine.

The system and method may be embodied as a tangible, non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable storagemedia) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compact discs(CD), optical discs, digital video disks (DVD), magnetic tapes, flashmemories, circuit configurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays orother semiconductor devices, or other non-transitory, tangiblecomputer-readable storage media) encoded with one or more programs that,when executed on one or more computers or other processors, performmethods that implement the various embodiments discussed above. Thecomputer readable medium or media can be transportable, such that theprogram or programs stored thereon can be loaded onto one or moredifferent computers or other processors to implement various aspects asdiscussed above. As used herein, the term “non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium” encompasses only a computer-readablemedium that can be considered to be a manufacture (i.e., article ofmanufacture) or a machine.

The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense torefer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executableinstructions that can be employed to program a computer or otherprocessor to implement various aspects of the present invention asdiscussed above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that accordingto one aspect of this embodiment, one or more computer programs thatwhen executed perform methods as described herein need not reside on asingle computer or processor, but may be distributed in a modularfashion amongst a number of different computers or processors toimplement various aspects.

Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally,program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, datastructures, etc, that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modulesmay be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in anysuitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may beshown to have fields that are related through location in the datastructure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigningstorage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium thatconveys relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanismmay be used to establish a relationship between information in fields ofa data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or othermechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.

Depending on the particular implementation and various associatedfactors such as the resources of the communications device, wirelessnetwork parameters, and other factors, different implementationarchitectures may be used for the present invention.

It should also be understood that the computer server may be implementedas one or more servers in any possible server architecture orconfiguration including for example in a distributed serverarchitecture, a server farm, or a cloud based computing environment.

Wherever the system is described as receiving input from the user of thecommunications device, it is to be understood that the input may bereceived through activation of a physical key on the communicationsdevice, through interaction with a touch screen display of thecommunications device, through a voice command received at thecommunications device and processed by the system, through a usergesture observed and processed at the communications device, throughphysically moving the communications device in a predetermined gesturepattern including shaking the communications device, through receivingdata from another local or remote communications device associated withthe user, or through any other sensory interaction with thecommunications device or otherwise controlling the communicationsdevice.

The present system and method may be practiced in various embodiments. Asuitably configured computer device, and associated communicationsnetworks, devices, software and firmware may provide a platform forenabling one or more embodiments as described above.

By way of example, FIG. 38 shows an example computer device 200 that mayinclude a central processing unit (“CPU”) 102 connected to a storageunit 104 and to a random access memory 106. The CPU 102 may process anoperating system 101, application program 103, and data 123. Theoperating system 101, application program 103, and data 123 may bestored in storage unit 104 and loaded into memory 106, as may berequired. Computer device 200 may further include a graphics processingunit (GPU) 122 which is operatively connected to CPU 102 and to memory106 to offload intensive image processing calculations from CPU 102 andrun these calculations in parallel with CPU 102. An operator 107 mayinteract with the computer device 100 using a video display 108connected by a video interface 105, and various input/output devicessuch as a keyboard 115, mouse 112, and disk drive or solid state drive114 connected by an I/O interface 109. In known manner, the mouse 112may be configured to control movement of a cursor in the video display108, and to operate various graphical user interface (GUI) controlsappearing in the video display 108 with a mouse button. The disk driveor solid state drive 114 may be configured to accept computer readablemedia 116. The computer device 200 may form part of a network via anetwork interface 111, allowing the computer device 200 to communicatewith other suitably configured data processing systems (not shown). Oneor more different types of sensors 135 may be used to receive input fromvarious sources.

The present system and method may be practiced on virtually any mannerof computer device including a desktop computer, laptop computer, tabletcomputer or wireless handheld. The present system and method may also beimplemented as a computer-readable/useable medium that includes computerprogram code to enable one or more computer devices to implement each ofthe various process steps in a method in accordance with the presentinvention. In case of more than computer devices performing the entireoperation, the computer devices are networked to distribute the varioussteps of the operation. It is understood that the termscomputer-readable medium or computer useable medium comprises one ormore of any type of physical embodiment of the program code. Inparticular, the computer-readable/useable medium can comprise programcode embodied on one or more portable storage articles of manufacture(e.g. an optical disc, a magnetic disk, a tape, etc.), on one or moredata storage portioned of a computing device, such as memory associatedwith a computer and/or a storage system.

The mobile application of the present invention may be implemented as aweb service, where the mobile device includes a link for accessing theweb service, rather than a native application.

The functionality described may be implemented to any mobile platform,including the iOS™ platform, ANDROID™, WINDOWS™ or BLACKBERRY™.

The embodiments described herein involve computing devices, servers,receivers, transmitters, processors, memory, display, networksparticularly configured to implement various acts. The embodimentsdescribed herein are directed to electronic machines adapted forprocessing and transforming electromagnetic signals which representvarious types of information. The embodiments described hereinpervasively and integrally relate to machines, and their uses; and theembodiments described herein have no meaning or practical applicabilityoutside their use with computer hardware, machines, a various hardwarecomponents.

Substituting the computing devices, servers, receivers, transmitters,processors, memory, display, networks particularly configured toimplement various acts for non-physical hardware, using mental steps forexample, may substantially affect the way the embodiments work.

Such computer hardware limitations are clearly essential elements of theembodiments described herein, and they cannot be omitted or substitutedfor mental means without having a material effect on the operation andstructure of the embodiments described herein. The computer hardware isessential to the embodiments described herein and is not merely used toperform steps expeditiously and in an efficient manner.

While illustrated in the block diagrams as groups of discrete componentscommunicating with each other via distinct electrical data signalconnections, the present embodiments are provided by a combination ofhardware and software components, with some components being implementedby a given function or operation of a hardware or software system, andmany of the data paths illustrated being implemented by datacommunication within a computer application or operating system. Thestructure illustrated is thus provided for efficiency of teachingexample embodiments.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other variationsof the embodiments described herein may also be practiced withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention. Other modifications aretherefore possible.

In further aspects, the disclosure provides systems, devices, methods,and computer programming products, including non-transientmachine-readable instruction sets, for use in implementing such methodsand enabling the functionality described previously.

Although the disclosure has been described and illustrated in exemplaryforms with a certain degree of particularity, it is noted that thedescription and illustrations have been made by way of example only.Numerous changes in the details of construction and combination andarrangement of parts and steps may be made. Accordingly, such changesare intended to be included in the invention, the scope of which isdefined by the claims.

Except to the extent explicitly stated or inherent within the processesdescribed, including any optional steps or components thereof, norequired order, sequence, or combination is intended or implied. As willbe will be understood by those skilled in the relevant arts, withrespect to both processes and any systems, devices, etc., describedherein, a wide range of variations is possible, and even advantageous,in various circumstances, without departing from the scope of theinvention, which is to be limited only by the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for generatinginsights relating to patient health using a social networking platforminterconnecting a patient with a plurality of care givers, the methodcomprising: receiving at least one characteristic of the patient, the atleast one characteristic comprising a health condition of the patient;providing, on a user interface at a first computing device, options toone or more of the plurality of care givers to customize at least onecustomized computer application for use by the patient to solicit andcollect patient data from the patient, wherein a visual appearance ofthe at least one customized computer application is customized to thepatient; providing the at least one customized computer application to aportal accessible by the patient; displaying, on a user interface at asecond computing device, the at least one customized computerapplication by way of the social networking platform and the portal;receiving, at the at least one customized computer application, firstpatient data reflective of the health condition of the patient;transmitting, by way of at the social networking platform, acommunication from at least one of the care givers to the patient,wherein the transmitting comprising translating, by at least one of adictionary and/or a look-up table, technical language in thecommunication to plain language, wherein the technical language includesat least one medical term; receiving, by way of the social networkingplatform, second patient data reflective of the health condition of thepatient, the second patient data responsive to the transmittedcommunication; analyzing, using at least one processor, the first andsecond patient data to determine at least one insight relating to healthof the patient, wherein the at least one insight comprises an insightreflecting the patient's adherence to a medication regimen; andgenerating, using the at least one processor, a report for presentingthe at least one insight.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:processing, at the at least one processor, the first patient data togenerate a recommendation for a communication from the at least one caregiver to the patient.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:matching, at the at least one processor, at least one further care giverto the patient based on at least the health condition of the patient. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting comprises applyingspeech-to-text conversion to the communication.
 5. The method of claim1, further comprising: offering an incentive to the patient for enteringthe first patient data.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or both ofthe first patient data and the second patient data comprises a reportthat the patient has taken a particular medication.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein one or both of the first patient data and the secondpatient data comprises a report of a particular mood of the patient. 8.The method of claim 1, wherein one or both of the first patient data andthe second patient data comprises a health metric of the patient.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the health metric comprises a measurement ofthe patient's weight or the patient's blood pressure.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the at least one insight comprises an insightreflecting the patient's quality of life.
 11. The method of claim 1,wherein the at least one insight comprises an insight reflectingclinical efficacy of a medication taken by the patient.
 12. The methodof claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic further comprises atleast one of an age, a gender, and a geographic location of the patient.13. The method of claim 1, wherein the report comprises a SubjectiveObjective Assessment Plan note.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein thereport comprises an agenda for an appointment between the patient and ahealth care provider.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the pluralityof care givers comprises at least one of a health care professional anda family member of the patient.
 16. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising receiving third patient data generated by an electronicdevice.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the electronic device is aradio-frequency identification tag.
 18. The method of claim 1, whereinthe generating comprises classifying the patient into at least one groupof patients.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the classifyingcomprises generating a behavioural fingerprint for the patient.
 20. Asystem for generating insights relating to patient health, the systemcomprising: a social networking platform interconnecting a patient witha plurality of care givers; a first computing device; a second computingdevice; and at least one processor configured to: receive at least onecharacteristic of the patient, the at least one characteristiccomprising a health condition of the patient; provide, on a userinterface at the first computing device, options to one or more of theplurality of care givers to customize at least one customized computerapplication for use by the patient to solicit and collect patient datafrom the patient, wherein a visual appearance of the at least onecustomized computer application is customized to the patient; providethe at least one customized computer application to a portal accessibleby the patient; display, on a user interface at the second computingdevice, the at least one customized computer application by way of thesocial networking platform and the portal; receive, at the at least onecustomized computer application, first patient data reflective of thehealth condition of the patient; transmit, by way of at the socialnetworking platform, a communication from at least one of the caregivers to the patient, wherein the transmitting comprises translating,by at least one of a dictionary and/or a look-up table, technicallanguage in the communication to plain language, wherein the technicallanguage includes at least one medical term; receive, by way of thesocial networking platform, second patient data reflective of the healthcondition of the patient, the second patient data responsive to thetransmitted communication; analyze the first and second patient data todetermine at least one insight relating to health of the patient,wherein the at least one insight comprises an insight reflecting thepatient's adherence to a medication regimen; and generate a report forpresenting the at least one insight.
 21. The system of claim 20, whereinthe at least customized of computer application comprises a computerapplication configured as a game.